Yesterday
Tim had a bad day.
It didn’t start out bad. He woke up on time, got his coffee the way he liked. In fact, he was quite upbeat as he showed up for work 7 minutes early. Dirty Heads had been playing in the car and who can think the day is going to be bad when Vacation is the soundtrack to your commute.
Thinking back about it, Tim realized that everything started to unravel the moment he tried to open the door. There was a slight crack in the cement leading to the side door he typically doesn’t use. Just as he reached for the handle, that crack caught his foot. He stumbled.
He was able to laugh that off, but it was the first stepping stone in the direction of the day.
It was only moments after sitting down at his desk that Sam came by. In typical Sam fashion, he said some off handed comment. One of those that you aren’t sure if it was an insult or just a matter of fact statement. Regardless, Tim couldn’t stop thinking about it. He knows Sam is a dick. He always has been, but today that comment stuck. He tried to push some ones and zeros around, but it was much easier to sit and fester on that comment. Tapping the keys of his computer and staring at the screen as nothing happened.
Five o’clock couldn’t come fast enough.
Tim thought he would sneak out early, just as he was gathering his stuff, Delilah walks up on starts a conversation. She always has too much to say. As the minutes click by, Tim gets more and more annoyed. Five comes and goes. She finally realizes that she no longer needs to daddle at work and can go home which ends the conversation abruptly.
Tim slips out the back. Once in his car, he rips his tie off. Pulls his favorite shirt over his head and drops it in the passenger seat. He drives home.
The air conditioning of his apartment has kicked on moments before he comes in the door giving him that perfectly controlled environment he is used to. He opens the fridge, pulls out a beer and some left overs and relaxes in front of his tv screen.
Tim had a bad day.
8,252 Years Ago Yesterday
Harry has no idea if he had a good day or a bad day. He doesn’t have time to think about such things.
The day started the way it always does. The soft glow of the sunrise draws him out of sleep. It’s autumn and the air is crisp in the morning. He crawls out from under the skins he has been sleeping in to stoke the fire. The longer nights require him to wake up and stoke the fire multiple times to ensure that it is still going in the morning and to keep the cave warm.
Typically, his partner stirs as he gets up. Today she didn’t. He notices but doesn’t think too much of it. There are other things to keep his attention. They had eaten well the night before, so breakfast isn’t too urgent, but his next meal is always on his mind.
He places another log on the fire.
His partner still hasn’t moved. He walks over and shakes her fully expecting her to stir and wake up. He starts to walk away before he realizes there was a stiffness to the shake and that it didn’t give him the desired result. He shakes her again. Nothing. He pulls the skins off to uncover her lifeless, cold body. He shakes her again, hoping. Nothing.
He sits down to consider what to do. His brother limps in. Harry tells him what he has discovered. They both sit for a minute and then discuss what should be done.
It starts to rain, complicating the day.
With his brother’s help, they drag the body out of the cave. Far enough out that it won’t smell for today. They cover it. And then retreat back to the shelter of the cave. Thunder cracks in the distance. The rain comes down in sheets. Harry has little choice but to retreat to his fire. That next meal just got a little further out, but the rain won’t let him do anything about it.
He throws another log on the fire. Grabs his spear and starts to sharpen the tip. There is a small chunk of meat from last night’s meal that he notices had dropped into the coals. He fishes it out of the fire, waits for it to cool enough to eat and is happy for a little sustenance. The rain continues all day.
The sun sets and the only light is from his fire. With nothing left to do, he slips under the skins in the same place his partner had died the night before and falls to sleep.
Harry has no idea if he had a good day or a bad day. It was just another day.
Two Weeks Ago
It’s 6 AM. The sun has not risen but there is a high shrill noise coming from the edge of Tim’s bed. It jolts him from his sleep. He waves his arm around lethargically hitting at the sound. Just as his phone is about to slide off the night stand, his eyes finally snap open and he carefully turns the alarm off. He cannot afford another cracked screen.
He lies in the dark for a few minutes trying to shake the sleep from his mind. He gets up and starts his routine.
He hadn’t done much the day before in way of physical exertion. He drove his car to work, sat in front of a computer and then drove home to sit in front of his tv. If he broke a sweat, he hadn’t notice.
He puts the coffee on.
As the water magically begins to warm, he strips down and walks into the shower. The hot water pours over his body as he washes the filth that isn’t there
His coffee is ready and waiting when he returns to the kitchen. He is now clean and can begin his day. He pulls a frozen breakfast sandwich out of the freezer and pops it into the microwave. His toe taps as he waits the 90 seconds for it to warm.
Ding.
He pulls it out, annoyed that it still isn’t ready. He pops it back in for another 90 seconds.
It’s still dark when he walks the 30 yards to his car, pulls out of the carport and heads to work. The office is uneventful. He does his job and comes home. He had hopes of going for a run when he got home, but he is exhausted and decides to do that tomorrow. He orders food that arrives in about 45 minutes, hot and ready. He eats, watches some tv and goes to bed well after the sun has set.
Two Weeks and 8,252 Years Ago
The soft glow of the sun breaking slowly brings Harry out of sleep. He gets up and stokes the fire.
If he had any idea what coffee was, he probably wouldn’t care. Preparing it would take some serious considerations. He would have to gather enough wood to get the fire hot enough to boil the water. More over, he would need to figure out something to put said water in to be able to place it over the fire to boil. And that’s just the day of considerations. Growing coffee, harvesting it and then roasting it in preparation for dropping it into the boiling water he doesn’t have a way to prepare, is beyond anything he has ever considered doing.
Besides that, he never has trouble waking up. The sun comes up, he gets up. The sun goes down, he goes to sleep.
His nose twitches. He can smell his brother approaching. They spent the day prior hunting to no avail. Outside of a few berries and roots they foraged, neither have eaten much in a couple of days. Harry’s stomach rumbles. They discuss heading out in the opposite direction as yesterday to see what they can find. They agree to head out in a bit.
Harry has never considered taking a shower. Not only would that make him less likely to find food, but the smells of his clan are what he knows. He can tell when his brother is coming or when his partner is ovulating. Smells are a big part of his life. The concept of the bourgeois hasn’t been invented yet, and if it had, he wouldn’t care about fighting their morals, but showering still wouldn’t be something he would consider.
They spend the day hunting. Between the two of them, they come back with one small rabbit, a handful of berries and a squirrel. At least they get to eat. The fire has gone out. As one of them prepares the meat, the other gets the fire going again and gathers enough wood so they can cook what they caught. It’s not much, but it at least calms their hunger.
The sun shoots deep orange rays across the sky. Harry feels tired. He watches the embers of his fire slowly fade as the sun gives up its last light.
He goes to sleep.
Tomorrow
Tim is going to go for a run.
Let’s be honest, he doesn’t want to. There is no part of his body that says, “Yes! Let’s go for a run.” His doctor has been telling him for years that exercise would be a good idea. It would help some of his anxiety and his heart isn’t exactly a healthy pump. He’s been meaning to take that first run for as long as his doctor has been advising it. He knows he should. He just doesn’t want to.
It’s not so much that he doesn’t care. He would like to be healthy, it just isn’t easy. His work is in front of a computer meaning he sits most of the day. However, he did recently purchase a stand up desk so he can get off his ass every once in a while, but he still isn’t moving.
Home and work are not exactly close, a bit too far for him to walk. Not that walking is a real possibility. He would have to cross several multi-lane, highspeed roads and get around a freeway to do so. These are the same impediments that keep him from using a bike or any other form of transportation that isn’t a metal box that he can sit in and push a pedal to get where he needs to go.
He has tried multiple diets, but just like everyone else, he loses weight just to gain it back a couple of months later. It’s a vicious cycle.
So tomorrow Tim’s going for a run.
8,252 Years Ago and 1 Day Forward
Harry will be going for a run tomorrow.
He has never thought about running. It’s just part of life. Most of the time, if he’s running, there’s a good chance it is necessary for him to survive. He is either chasing something he hopes to eat or running from something he hopes won’t eat him. His health has never crossed his mind. He just doesn’t have time to consider such things. His days are spent finding food. Doctors don’t exist for the same reason.
Harry is on a diet we now call the Paleo, but it’s the actual Paleo diet. He eats whatever he can scrounge, kill or grow. He isn’t picky, most people aren’t when survival is why you are eating. Not only does he eat whatever he can, his days are spent searching for that food. That food is his work. He leaves from the front of his cave on his two feet every day and returns the same way.
By our standards, he would be considered unhealthy. He’s malnourished most of the time and looks super skinny when compared to someone like Tim. He knows what it means to be hungry. Breakfast is any time he eats. He practices intermittent fasting, but not by choice. If he could, he would eat all the time, but that just isn’t his reality.
Harry will be going for a run tomorrow whether he wants to or not.
P. L. and R.
